| In the 1896 election William McKinley ran against the silver-tongued orator from Nebraska, William Jennings Bryan. Bryan’s cohorts sang We Will Vote for the Man from Nebraska and McKinley’s supporters responded with Sound Money and Honesty and Prosperity, Protection and McKinley. | In 1900, after Theodore Roosevelt was nominated as McKinley’s vice-president in recognition of his accomplishments on San Juan Hill in the Spanish-American War, one of the popular campaign songs was Hooray for Bill McKinley and That Brave Rough Rider Ted. Roosevelt was enormously popular, and because of his fiery oratory, his strenuous physical activities, and his attractive family, he made an ideal subject for the songwriters. One of his fans was a composer named Vincent Bryan, who wrote the tribute Theodore. |
| The most widely sung work supporting William Taft in the 1908 election was B – I Double L Bill, by Monroe Rosenfeld. This was followed by Step into Line for Taft by J. M. Hagan. | When World War I burst upon Europe in midsummer 1914, President Woodrow Wilson steered the country to keep free of foreign entanglements. The first admirer to translate the president’s policies into musical idiom was Blanche Merrill, who wrote We Take Our Hats Off to You, Mr. Wilson |
